


Fight It, Fight Me

by Brewrites



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Comfort, F/M, One Sided Borra, Sparring, Takes place after the finales of each season, Teaching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-11-01 17:46:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10926876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brewrites/pseuds/Brewrites
Summary: All the times Bolin tries to make Korra feel better, and the one time he doesn't.





	1. After Amon

He hadn't slept much since Amon and the equalists kidnapped him and nearly took his bending. He couldn’t even imagine what Korra was going through. She actually had her bending taken away, he just got real close and he still had the nightmares, those cold hands on his skin, watching the guy in line before him tremble, watching the guy on the floor shriek as his entire purpose was stripped away. As the avatar, he imagined it had been a million times worse for Korra. 

Luckily, she had gotten her bending back in some cool avatar perk way, and of course Mako had been there both times. When she had lost her bending and when she had gotten it back. Of course he wasn’t bitter, he wanted Mako to be happy, even after all that had happened with the whole Asami/ Korra, Korra wait Asami, No no wait, Korra! Business that had been happening lately. 

Still, he had trouble sleeping in the strange new place. He figured with the baby, Pema had to have some bison milk to warm up to help him sleep. He and Mako were sharing a room, but Mako had no reason not to sleep. He got the girl, the avatar, even though he had strung her along for months, and he hadn’t nearly lost his bending Everything was great for him. Mako didn’t wake up as he plodded down the hallway toward the kitchen. 

He nearly shouted when he he found Korra sitting on one of the benches in the kitchen, flicking through her elements with a swiftness that was her signature. Fire, water, air, earth, repeated over and over again, several times before he made himself seen. She had definitely been in her own head for the minute or so that he watched her cycle through the elements over and over again. 

“Can’t sleep?” He asked, stepping into the kitchen and taking a seat on the stool next to her. He almost felt like he was interrupting something. It almost felt wrong. Mako and Korra were together, and he was nearly certain it would be for good that time, but it was his own relationship with Korra that prevented him from being able to leave her to herself when she was pulling long faces like that. “I could go get Mako for you.” He hoped it would make her laugh. 

Instead, her eyes grew wide, and she reached for his arm. “No,” she answered, and it was almost like she was scared. “I mean, he needs his sleep. He told me he was going to go to Beifong for a job on the force while the arena is being rebuild and I wouldn't want to make him lose anymore sleep.” 

He could see that her fingers were twitching to keep bending. “So what keeps Avatar Korra awake?” he asked. “Cause I would imagine it could be a lot of things,” He continued. “That terrible ending of our last pro bending game keeps me awake most nights.” He still wanted to make her laugh.

He got a smile from her, but he could work with that. “I keep thinking that if I go to sleep, this will all be a dream,” She admitted. “That I’ll still not have my bending back or that it's less, that it won't be enough for all of the evil that is still in the world.” 

He nodded along. “You know what I did after the first week after you guys saved me from Amon?” He asked. “I trained, and trained and trained, sparring against anyone who would agree, until I couldn't see straight most nights,” he explained. “Because I came this close to losing my bending and I was going to make the best of it.” He placed a hand on her shoulder, extra gentle since he knew his hands were calloused, his touch more heavy than Mako’s, not to mention Korra was his brother’s girlfriend. “I can't imagine actually losing my bending, just earthbending, but all of them?” He gave her shoulder a light squeeze. “I'm here for you, Korra.” 

He should probably get back to bed before someone saw them and got the wrong idea, or before he himself got the wrong idea. 

“Hey, Bolin!” She called, chasing after him. “Will you train with me until I can't see straight?” 

He couldn't help but smile.

\-----

Her bending forms were stiff as a board and he won the first few matches against her even though she used all of the elements against him. He still knocked her down, making her grunt against the snow maybe louder than she should in the early hours of the morning. Those grunts echoed all around, even in the gentle flurry of the start of a storm and he was being as gentle as he could. 

She may have gotten her bending back, but her forms were just bad. She firebent like a waterbender, waterbent like an airbender, airbent like an earthbender, but he had to say her earthbending was the worst. Maybe because he knew that element up close and personal, but he could definitely see what she was doing wrong. 

“Do you ever just focus on one element at a time?” He asked, wiping the sweat from his forehead on his sleeve, even though he was sure it was below zero, he was still breaking a sweat. . 

“Less talking, more sparring,” She answered curtly, bouncing on her toes, her fists up as if it was a boxing match instead. 

“Alright,” he answered, “I'm just saying because I have an unfair advantage.”

To prove his point, he bent the earth under her, knocking her down again. He hurled small dirt clods at her and they exploded against her skin and her clothes and the ground. 

He did finally get her to laugh, so he took that as a success. 

“Do you yield?” He asked, stepping closer and still hurling the dirt clods. 

“I yield, I yield!” She exclaimed between giggles. 

He gave her his best evil laugh. “I have bested the avatar!” He exclaimed in his best villain voice. Then he offered her his hand. 

“It won't happen again,” she answered as he pulled her up. She brushed the snow and dirt from wherever she could reach. “What did you mean earlier?” She asked. “About one element at a time.”

He smiled and let go of her hand, even though at that moment it was one of the most difficult things he would ever do. “Mako, being older, got his bending first,” He said. He hadn’t wanted to bring up Mako just yet, because she was dating him and it did still hurt, but it was necessary. “Being two years older, he was firebending before mom and dad left us.” He cleared his throat, trying to prevent the sad memories from bubbling up again. “I wanted so bad to be a firebender like my brother, like mom, and I would train with him, doing the same movements, the same swiftness and light footedness, but nothing would happen.” 

He moved his feet and hands like a firebender would, like his brother, but nothing happened. 

“So you couldn’t get your earthbending right until you stopped trying to be a firebender?” Korra asked, copying his move and sending a decent sized flame into the dark night. It amazed him how the jealousy still surged through him, how easy it was for her. 

How Mako got everything he wanted and he didn’t even seem to appreciate it. 

“Kinda,” he answered, though it came out more like a question. “Have you ever seen an earthbender kid throw a tantrum?” he asked. She shook her head with a small smile. “Let’s just say that buildings were leveled, streets were torn asunder and it was a pretty bad day for me at 5 years old.” He still couldn’t help but blush at the shame of the entire event. “But that was the day I stopped trying to copy my brother and began learning my own style of bending and all because a earthbending badass showed me how cool earthbending could be.” 

“Beifong?” Korra asked. 

He nodded. “I had never seen something so cool as how she and the other officers righted everything as if it was nothing.” he explained. “That was the day I stopped trying to be a firebender and became a real earthbender, and from there, everything became easier.” He twisted his hands, bringing up a fully formed Naga from the icy ground and then letting it fall again. “Who taught you earthbending?” He asked. “Probably one of the white lotus while you were learning the other elements too, right?” He asked. 

She nodded slowly, still enamoured with his dirt interpretation of her pet. “I was so concerned that the world would need me like it needed Aang so young that I blew through them.” She let out a chuckle. “That and my earthbending teacher was a bore!” 

Even he had to laugh as she imitated the old master, squishing her nose up and pronouncing “earth” with a distinctive y sound instead. 

“Well, if you want pointers, I'm your guy.” He wasn't really her anything. Wouldn't ever be her anything, especially with Mako as her boyfriend. “I don't know if you’ve heard, but I'm the earthbender on the Fire Ferrets.” He did love to hear her laugh. 

“Ok,” she answered. “What pointers do you have for me, Master Bolin?” She asked with a cheeky smile. 

“Show me your form,” he suggested. 

She broke out into the typical Earthbending form, only it was half assed and weak. He took the opportunity to gaze at her for just a few seconds longer than he should have, his eyes taking in the smallest of details, from the way her hair was falling out of its loops to the way her hands were scarred and calloused. Much more than that. 

He kicked her foot gently with the toe of his boot. “You need to spread a little more,” he said, noting exactly how wrong and dirty it sounded. “You can't connect and really bend if you’ve got twinkle toes.” He forced his foot between hers and prodded hers further apart. 

One problem fixed. Everything else to go. 

“Stand straighter,” he suggested, almost afraid to touch her. “You’re slouching.” He placed his hands on her shoulders to straighten her out and found nothing but tension. “You’re too tight,” he said, kneading his thumbs into her shoulders with a gentle pressure and trying not to make the next words that came from his mouth sound like the nudey stories from the back of the newspaper stands. 

She let out a small moan as the tension began to release from her shoulders and he prodded her shoulders back with a gentle pull and a loud pop. 

The spirits were testing him, he was sure. 

Her arms were too far extended, her elbows too tight. He stepped up behind her and stretched his arms along hers, his fingers gently correcting her arms, brushing against her warm soft skin and resting beside hers in the proper form. Or at least as proper as he could be with a girl between his arms, mirroring his form, her back against his front, her skin warm and so exclusively Korra as she breathed against him in the night. 

“Like that?” She asked, sending a ripple through the earth in front of them and through him as well. 

He nearly forgot what he was supposed to be doing. “Exactly like that,” he answered, pulling himself away before he embarrassed himself further, or before someone else found them. “Now put it to use.” 

Maybe he just needed her to knock him out. Give him some other pain to focus on besides the heartache that he was sure was permanent. 

At least she was alright after all that Amon had done. 

At least she was happy.


	2. After Vaatu

When the end of the world from Unalaq and Vaatu was thwarted, he had never been so relieved. He couldn't believe that he had nearly been desperate enough to return to Eska and by extension Desna, but luckily she had taken pity on him and let him go freely. 

He was more worried about Korra. After everything that had happened with Raava and getting rid of Vaatu with her giant blue self and keeping the spirit portals open, it was no surprise she wasn't sleeping. 

He couldn't actually remember losing his parents, but he imagined losing thousands of years of previous Avatar knowledge had to be much much worse. Not only that, but she and Mako were fighting, a complete unknown again. 

Not that it was the time to try and start anything with her. She definitely wasn't interested after all that had happened over the past few months. 

“Hey Korra,” he said, watching as she flipped through more ancient texts in Tenzin’s massive study. Pema had sent him to get the avatar for dinner, she had refused lunch and he hadn't seen her at breakfast either. He had tried to give the responsibility off to Asami, she might have a more gentle touch, or even Mako, but he would probably do more harm than good.

Pema had put on her sternest face. “Are you going against a direct order?” She had asked him. He was sure some days her sternness could rival Chief Beifong’s. 

That was how he found himself in the study, watching Korra as the sunset streamed through the windows and bathed her in a warm golden glow as she flipped through the ancient texts strewn around the floor like a nest around her. 

“Hey,” he said gently as the door closed behind him with a loud snap, her eyes jerking up toward him. “Dinner’s ready.”

“I'm not hungry,” she answered, returning to the ancient text, her back hunching, her eyebrow furrowed. “And there's too much work to do.”

He stood his ground. “You didn't come out for lunch,” he said. “And starving yourself isn't going to change what happened.” Whoops, maybe he sounded a bit too much like Mako. “You saved the world, again,” he said. “Take a break, you deserve it.” 

She let out a huff of air that he was sure was one puff away from firebending from her mouth. “I can't take a break,” she said, glaring at him. “Because of me, all of the past avatars are gone, all that knowledge wasted!” He could see her crumbling. “Because I wasn't strong enough to fight off Vaatu.”

He didn't give a damn that she could hurt him in several ways with all of the elements. He had faced enough firebending from Mako, Earth and Waterbending from other pro bending teams, and several elements from her to know he could handle whatever she could throw at him. He pushed past her pile of books and wrapped his arms around her tight. 

She tensed against him and then slowly, agonizingly slow, she relaxed against him. “Thank you for saving the world,” he said gently. “I really appreciate it.” 

She rocked with a loud sob against him. “Will you kick my ass?” She asked. “Make me forget, make me stronger?” She asked. 

She remembered their previous arrangement and that made him smile. “Only if you eat dinner,” he said. He figured he could work with that. “Then I'll knock you all over the temple if you like.”

“Thank you,” She said gently. “Let’s go,” she said, pulling away from him. 

\-----

Other activities had pulled her away from their spar after dinner. Tenzin had telephoned his mother in the southern water tribe for any advice and Korra had been pulled into a long conference call with the previous avatar’s wife. Judging by how she left Tenzin’s office, no solutions had been found. 

She slammed herself into the study, surrounded with more books, he supposed, and he figured she would come out when she was ready. She would spar with him, if she remembered, when she was ready. 

He wished he could come up with some way to make her feel better.

\-----

She didn't start anything with him until they were back in the city. They were investigating the new strange vines that appeared when she left the portals open and that was when he felt the crumbly earth pelt him right between the shoulder blades. He almost considered that it was some spirit, or a strange effect of the spirit vines themselves, but the mischievous look on her face said it all.

“Are you going to answer the challenge, earthbender?” She asked, flexing with a decent sized rock in her hand. 

He couldn't help but smile. 

That was how he knew she was starting to heal. 

Later, they sparred into the late hours of the night, putting the new arena to good use long after Toza goes to bed.


	3. After Zaheer

She knew there was no way she could fight with him in her current state. She couldn't walk, she could barely bend without immense pain, she knew she was an embarrassment to the avatar name, confined to the wheelchair she's come to hate. 

The others were supportive enough. Asami pushed her through the crowds and helped her with the basic tasks she should have been able to do herself. Mako pushed her emotionally and physically in an attempt to infuriate her out of the chair, she supposed. Bolin used the opposite tactic, sweet words of encouragement, pushing her to do tasks herself, but helping her when she insisted. 

When she couldn't hurry through everything, she began to notice how solid the earthbender really was. How unwavering and gentle and thoughtful he was. Over the several weeks that she stayed in Republic City, he was the most willing to help, the rock of the group. 

He was the one that never gave up hope, even when she wanted to. 

She came to the realization that she had chosen the wrong brother several times during those first few weeks in the city, but the realization that he had Opal now cut through her like a knife. 

“I miss you already!” He exclaimed as they all stood on the dock as she prepared for her exodus back to the southern water tribe. She knew he probably did, but he had Opal to distract him. She took the first letter from him with a small smile anyway. 

He wrote her several letters, mailed in the large care packages with letters from Mako and Asami and drawings from the kids, but she knew deep down he was sugar coating things. 

He had Opal and she reminded herself of that with every letter she read. 

That's why she didn't write any of them back for a long time. If she wrote to Bolin, she would feel terrible about Opal. If she wrote to Mako, that would send the wrong message to Bolin. Instead, after weeks of deliberation, she wrote to Asami and attempted to keep things hush hush. 

It wasn't what she preferred, but she wasn't ready to return to Republic city yet. Asami was the next best thing. 

\-----

At first she couldn't figure out why she had gravitated to the small earthbending town. Maybe because even after all those years, she felt earthbending was still her weakest element. Maybe it was just the location. It was closest to the South Pole and she hadn't traveled far before she had shorn her hair off and taken a new identity. Maybe it was those sparring lessons he always pulled her into when she was feeling down. 

When she first stepped into the ring, she hoped it would all come back. The ease of bending, the joy, the exhilarating rush of being alive again. 

Instead she got her ass handed to her, over and over again. 

As the other bender pummeled her, she wished for three things. 

1.That it would be enough to knock her out. 

2\. That she would wake up and it would be her and Bolin in the South Pole, pelting each other for the fun of it. 

3\. That it would end her suffering. 

But none of those things happened. She was still conscious in the small Earth town. Her suffering still continued. 

And Bolin was happy with Opal back in Republic City. 

She didn't fight it anymore.


End file.
